


Flatline

by orphan_account



Category: RWBY
Genre: Brawler Yang, Cyberpunk, Dark, F/F, Face Weiss, Gearhead Ruby, Infiltrator Blake, Ruby swears a lot but everyone just thinks it's adorable
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-20
Updated: 2019-04-20
Packaged: 2020-01-15 21:35:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,651
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18507547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: It's the year 2319, and Remnant has long since fallen under the control of several powerful megacorps. For the majority of people, not too much has changed, as long as you don't mind living under constant surveillance and working a soul-crushing job. And then there's Ruby and her team, living in the shadows, trying to make the world just a little brighter. Hey, at least there's lots of neon signs!





	Flatline

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was a mood. Just a little experiment for now. :) Happily, I _finally_ managed to move all my old fic data to regular ol' markdown files! Learn from my mistake, kids, don't use a proprietary writing thingy that doesn't play well with a different OS.

"Yaaaaang, I can't do this unless you cover me!" Ruby yelled out, her head peeking out of cover just enough for the automated defense drones to be able to track her. A rain of ice-infused bullets zoomed through the air—the SDC couldn't be accused of lacking in style, at least—and Ruby realized her slip-up just in time to duck back in cover, barely pulling her equipment far enough to the side to stop it from getting turned into a very expensive chunk of ice and scrap metal.

" _Kinda_ busy over here, Rubes," she could barely make out the reply, muffled as it was by all the gunfire, even with Yang's voice being amplified by the transmitters she and Ruby were wearing. "You're gonna have to do something about those turrets soon if you don't want us all to turn into Swiss _Schnees_."

Blake and Ruby groaned reflexively, knowing this would just encourage Yang even further. Not that she needed much encouragement to start with, of course.

They had little time to waste on this, however, and the question of whether or not a pun counts when you weren't even pronouncing a name correctly would have to wait for later, Ruby decided as she quickly went back to work attempting to override the automated defense controls, trusting her teammates to cover her in an emergency.

Even for someone like Ruby, hacking systems in the middle of a fight was something you never quite got used to. You could bring all the fancy tools you want, think of all the possibilities far in advance, and you'd still end up entering the wrong commands a good twenty percent of the time when a stray explosion or bullets flying right by your ear startled the crap out of you.

Another explosion of ice far too close for comfort, another typo of disaster barely avoided. A sigh of relief at letting Blake talk her into doing this the manual way escaped her. Thank goodness she hadn't been stubborn enough to directly plug her datajack into the system.

Though, with how things were looking, Ruby knew she might not have much of a choice before long.

Yang, the supposedly invincible brawler, who would punch back twice as hard whenever she'd get hit, was bleeding heavily from a nasty wound on her arm and her face where the shrapnel must've hit her. Even Blake, an actual fucking shadowy ninja as far as Ruby was concerned, had some obvious nasty cuts.

"Alright, just a little longer... almost got the wireless communication protocol for these turrets... on top of the standard 903.22 physical layer, good..."

She just needed to buy her team a little bit of time. Things had gone to hell almost within minutes, of course, that was almost to be expected on these sorts of operations. But if they could just make it past the auto-turrets to the side door leading out of this godforsaken mansion, they'd be fine.

"Crafting de-auth packets to jam the system now... some basic ICE in the way... here's hoping they actually follow the protocol standards..."

They wouldn't be able to extract the target—someone they only knew and were supposed to recognize by the cryptic name "detainee number six"—of course. Tai wouldn't be happy to have to tell their contact, but on the other hand would probably be glad if they made it back with a minimum number of extra holes.
    
    
    Sending DeAuth to broadcast -- BSSID: [48:69:79:61:20:41]
    Sending DeAuth to broadcast -- BSSID: [4F:33:21:20:49:27]
    Sending DeAuth to broadcast -- BSSID: [6D:20:62:61:63:6B]
    Sending DeAuth to broadcast -- BSSID: [20:69:6E:20:62:75]
    Sending DeAuth to broadcast -- BSSID: [73:69:6E:65:73:73]
    Connection successfully dropped. Camera tracking disabled while re-establishing connection.
    Process forked to background PID 5252.

" _Fuck yes_! Okay, I have _no_ idea how long my tools can suppress the signal before running out of juice, so everyone _run_ and let's get the hell out of here."

Blake finally poked her head out from behind a pillar Ruby could swear she wasn't even remotely close to mere seconds ago, seeing Ruby's exclamations transcribed on her retinal HUD, and quickly signed, <You certain? Turrets are still firing.> She hesitated for a second, then added the Valesian signs for "prefer not to", "snow", and "cheese".

<They shouldn't be able to track you anymore! I jammed the signal to the cameras all around us that track our moveme—>, Ruby replied, trying to sign at her speaking pace but quickly realizing she wouldn't be able to explain the process in much technical detail while they were on the clock, "...Look, we don't have time for this, let's just get out of here!"

Yang snorted. "Only one way to find out, I guess!" And with that, she casually stepped out from behind a mostly-bulletproof desk.

Blake and Ruby both released the breath they didn't realize they were holding in when the turrets _didn't_ immediately turn on her and turn her into a fine red mist.

Yang pumped her fist in the air halfheartedly. "Alright, go team! Let's just... get out of here before these damn turrets change their mind. Oh, and Ruby? Before we go, can I kick one ov—"

"No."

<Absolutely not.>

She grumbled. "Y'all are no fun." Stepping out into the hallway, and realizing there were at least _five_ different directions they could go in, she continued, "Hey, Blake? Don't suppose you have a map of the side part of the mansion? I don't want to be trapped in the most monochrome-looking maze forever."

Blake and Ruby followed her out and quickly took a look around. It was... pretty much what you'd expect from Schnee-type snobs, Ruby had to admit. Marble floors, all sorts of glass sculptures that were no doubt intended to be tasteful decoration but looked like nothing recognizable to her, the whole package. Oh, and paintings of unhappy-looking people, of course. With what looked like frames made of actual gold and silver, no less. There was even what looked like an interesting non-repeating yet somehow natural-looking pattern on the walls she couldn't quite keep her eyes from, at least until Yang coughing politely brought her back to reality.

<Afraid not> Blake signed. <The blueprints I... acquired were old, and this whole section of the mansion hadn't been built yet.>

Ruby shrugged. "Well, no use just standing around here. I doubt we have long before they realize we made it out and send some serious firepower after us. I say we just stick together, and I'll mark the passages we've taken for Trémaux's algorithm on my display. We'll be fine assuming this isn't some abstract Escher unsolvable— ...actually I'm just not gonna finish that sentence."

"Or... we could just follow the sign saying 'Temporary Detainment Rooms' I just noticed up there and see if we can find this mysterious detainee number six after all?" Yang quipped.

"...Right. That works too."

Somewhat warily, Blake and Ruby followed Yang down the poorly lit hallway, Blake staying a few feet behind and constantly on the lookout for traps and other trickery. Of all the ways they could've gone, this one looked the most like it actively wanted everyone to stay away from it. It made sense, of course. No higher-ups liked to draw attention to the sorts of things that often happened to trespassers and other minor offenders, and it would just offend the sensibilities of the upper class to be made aware of it.

Ruby frowned. Nonetheless, something about this didn't add up. She wasn't usually the kind of person to look for treachery and five-dimensional underwater backgammon in people's plans, that was more Blake's job. In her experience, bad guys were hardly as devilishly clever as most people—and the bad guys themselves, a lot of the time—would portray them to be. If they did something stupid, it was almost always because they made a mistake, not because they _really_ just wanted you to think that you'd foiled them but now you weren't fully prepared for their actual evil plan, maniacal laughter included.

But this was _too_ easy. By all accounts, the SDC made its fair share of blunders, but their highest-ranking security officer with the stern white hair just leaving them in a room with a couple turrets after easily wiping the floor with them? Turrets with consumer-grade security? An unlocked door to the side part of the mansion that just _happened_ to lead to the detainee they were looking for? Yang at least didn't seem too concerned or simply didn't care, but Ruby noticed that Blake, too, had that look on her face she always did when something just didn't add up.

"Found it!" Yang exclaimed, rousing Ruby from her thoughts, "The door to detainee number six! Holding the esteemed... ah."

Blake caught up to Yang first, and immediately made the universally recognized sign for "well, fuck", something even Yang, who had significantly less experience with Valesian Sign Language, immediately understood.

Like all the doors they'd run past, this one looked no different from any of the others in the hallway. Not quite a prison door, but sturdy enough that whoever was inside would have one hell of a hard time breaking out without specialized tools. Essentially, a door for locking people up without confronting the influential people with the ugly reality of what they were doing. An unsurprisingly common occurrence, and something Yang used to complain about a lot more before realizing that it essentially made their job a lot easier—no need to drill through a giant slab of metal, after all. So far, so standard. But what most stood out to the team was what was inscribed on the attached silver door sign.
    
    
    DETAINEE #6
    W. SCHNEE
    AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY

"Our target is the fucking heiress of the SDC?!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did you find the easter egg? :) A bit self-indulgent, but I wonder if anyone picked up on it. What do y'all think of the idea so far?


End file.
